Peter Eckel is an expert on higher education management, governance, and strategy, with a special focus on the role that university boards and presidents should play in helping institutions fulfill their missions. In addition to his research, Eckel develops and delivers highly innovative capacity-building programs and projects, including consulting efforts to strengthen and advance higher education. He has worked with public and private American universities and state systems and has advised ministries of education and universities around the globe.
Professional Biography
In his two-decade career as a scholar/practitioner, Peter Eckel has worked with hundreds of college, university, and state system administrators, faculty, and trustees on issues such as value-added governance, strategy, transformational change, student learning and educational quality, diversity and equity, academic leadership, presidential transitions, academic joint ventures/partnerships, internationalization, shared governance, institutional entrepreneurialism, and administrative teamwork.
Dr. Eckel joined Penn GSE as a Senior Fellow and Director of Leadership Programs with the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (Penn AHEAD). In 2023, he became the founding director of the executive-format Master’s Program in Global Higher Education Management, Penn’s first degree program created specifically for an international audience. It is a 100-percent online degree program, created to overcome the typical challenges of international collaboration and learning. Prior to joining Penn GSE, he served as Vice President for Programs and Research at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) and held several positions at the American Council on Education (ACE), including ending his tenure there as Director of the Center for Effective Leadership. He led AGB’s National Conference on Trusteeship and developed its offerings for international trustees and leaders. He created AGB’s presidential agenda to strengthen presidential leadership through effective governance, and led the design of AGB’s Institute for Public University Presidents and Board Leaders. At ACE, he was the founding director of numerous leadership programs, including the ACE Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, the Advancing to the Presidency workshop, the CAO-CBO Strategic Partnership workshop, and the ACE Presidential Roundtable Series.
He is the managing principal on a project developing a new research-intensive graduate school of education at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank in Moldova and as part of an IREX effort with the University of Fallujah (Iraq). He has offered professional development programs to university leaders and trustees from India, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the UK and has served as a quality assurance consultant to universities in the UAE. He co-leads a project working on the future of learning, a joint collaborative between Penn GSE and Anant National University in India. He has been engaged with the Association of International University Presidents (AIUP) Seminar on Leadership Development for New Presidents and Emerging Leaders.
He additionally serves as trustee at the University of La Verne (CA), serving on the academic and student affairs, finance, enrollment, and governance committees. He writes frequently for Inside Higher Education on issues of governance and leadership. He has been quoted in leading media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Higher Education Dive, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Education.
In his nearly three-decade career as a scholar/practitioner, Peter Eckel has worked with hundreds of college, university, and state system administrators, faculty, and trustees on issues such as value-added trusteeship, strategy (and not planning), shared governance, transformational change, student learning and educational quality, diversity and equity, academic leadership, presidential transitions, academic joint ventures/partnerships, internationalization, institutional entrepreneurialism, and administrative teamwork.
Dr. Eckel joined Penn GSE as a Senior Fellow and Director of Leadership Programs with the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (Penn AHEAD). In 2023, he became the founding director of the executive-format Master’s Program in Global Higher Education Management, Penn’s first degree program created specifically for an international audience. It is a 100-percent online degree program, created to overcome the typical challenges of international collaboration and learning.
Dr. Eckel works with university leaders and governing boards in the U.S. and abroad. He actively engages directly with nonprofit and university trustees, senior administrators, and faculty leaders. He consults with and designs retreats for senior leaders and boards. Recent engagements include the Middle States Commission for Higher Education, the University of South Carolina, Lehigh University (PA), Penn State University, The University of Michigan, North Central College (IL), Hood College (MD), Mercy College of Health Sciences (IA), and the Tuition Exchange, among others. Internationally, he works in a variety of contexts. He serves as managing partner on a project to support the development of the Graduate School of Education at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. He is developing a university governance capacity project in Mexico. He was co-lead for a global collaboration with Anant University in India on the future of learning. He has served as a consultant to a World Bank project in Moldova, IREX/NYU on a project involving the University of Fallujah in Iraq, and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, a network of 215 faith-based universities across the region. He has offered professional development programs to university leaders and trustees from Kazakhstan, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the UK, and has served as a quality assurance consultant to universities in the UAE. He serves on the faculty at the Association of International University Presidents (AIUP) Seminar on Leadership Development for New Presidents and Emerging Leaders.
Prior to joining Penn GSE, Dr. Eckel served as Vice President for Programs and Research at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) and held several positions at the American Council on Education (ACE), including ending his tenure there as Director of the Center for Effective Leadership. He led AGB’s National Conference on Trusteeship and developed its offerings for international trustees and leaders. He created AGB’s presidential agenda to strengthen presidential leadership through effective governance, and led the design of AGB’s Institute for Public University Presidents and Board Leaders. At ACE, he was the founding director of numerous leadership programs, including the ACE Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, the Advancing to the Presidency workshop, the CAO-CBO Strategic Partnership workshop, and the ACE Presidential Roundtable Series.
He additionally serves as trustee at the University of La Verne (CA), where he chairs the Governance Committee and serves on the board’s Executive Committee. He previously chaired both the Enrollment and Academic Affairs and Student Affairs Committees, and its interim presidential search process. Eckel writes frequently for Inside Higher Education on issues of governance, leadership, strategy and change. He has been quoted in leading media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Higher Education Dive, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Business Journal, and Inside Higher Education.
Dr. Eckel’s research efforts focus on bridging theory and practice as it relates to governance, leadership, strategy, and change management. His three lines of intersecting work focus on governance, strategy development and implementation, and leadership. He co-directs the Penn Project on University Governance with Matthew Hartley. He is working a multi-lens case study of contemporary presidential leadership challenges and recently developed the Board Culture Profile, a tool for college and university boards and presidents to make board culture concrete and therefore actionable to change.
He and his colleagues are working on a multi-lens case study of contemporary presidential leadership challenges. Another project focuses on the organizational narratives of AI use in teaching and learning and the civic implications of adoption.
Dr. Eckel is further involved in ongoing work related to advancing the ideas of strategy in higher education as an alternative to the traditional, and arguably ineffectual, traditional planning paradigm.
